Although talk of war with Iran has subsided somewhat, a French author has taken the prospect seriously enough to devote a whole book to a chilling, highly detailed look at how it might play out.
In French, naturellement. But Forbes provides a good rundown, in English:
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In one of three densely conceived, though, the author is careful to warn, utterly fictitious scenarios, President Bush launches Operation Boundless Fortitude after Iran’s religious leader Ali Khameini announces baldly that his nation has manufactured weapons-grade fissionable material enriched to nearly 100% (in lieu of 5% enrichment for peaceful nuclear reactors).
In an effort to show the world that the U.S. has not been paralyzed by its disastrous adventure in neighboring Iraq, on Aug. 16, 2008, Bush orders a massive aerial bombardment, flights of Tomahawk cruise missiles streaking from submarines and naval warships to strike Iranian command and control centers, ministries, telecommunications facilities and Iranian air defenses, especially Russian-made TOR M-1 missile emplacements, while B-2 stealth bombers destroy all access to the subterranean enrichment facilities at Natanz.
American warplanes and missiles carefully avoid striking research reactors in Teheran and Ispahan as well as the nuclear reactor at Bousher–less than 100 kilometers from Kuwait–as well as the centrifuges themselves at Natanz in an effort to prevent the spread of radioactive material to nearby population centers. However, other missiles producing electromagnetic pulses do knock out virtually all of Iran’s electric grid and computer systems.
By Sept. 4, less than three months after the first flight of Tomahawks, Iran is reduced to a state of near paralysis, unable in any sense to retaliate militarily, its entire economic infrastructure in shambles. The president’s near-term goal is satisfied to the letter. But if you think that’s the end, well then, read on.
Read on, indeed. Provided you read French.
Israel, meanwhile, makes no bones about what it will do in the event of an Iranian attack.
"An Iranian attack will prompt a severe reaction from Israel, which will destroy the Iranian nation," National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor) said on Monday. Teheran, he added, "is definitely aware of our strength. Even so, they are teasing us with their alliances with Syria and Hizbullah, and supplying them with many weapons, and we have to deal with that."
Speaking during a visit to the war room offices that were established as part of the emergency drill "Turning Point 2," he asserted that "the exercise that Israeli is simulating at the moment is not a false display or a fictional scenario."
(Photo: The French Publishers’ Agency)
